Computer systems are currently in wide use. They are deployed for use in a wide variety of environments. One environment is for performing on-line research.
Research is the process of obtaining information to become informed on any subject. For instance, research can be done for a school project or a work project. It can also be done to compare products in order to buy a given brand of product. Similarly, one can do research when planning a vacation or an event (such as a wedding or a birthday, etc.) or when simply following a personal interest or hobby. Research can even be used when looking for a good article or book to read or when trying to find a good restaurant. Performing on-line research in these and other areas can present some challenges.
Often, people doing research do not know exactly what they are looking for, particularly in the early stages of the research. It can be time consuming to find useful and accurate information that is relevant to a given topic. Information can also be biased. In addition, new sources of information are almost constantly becoming available, and it can be difficult to stay up-to-date with recent developments and publications in any given area. In addition, the depth and breadth of the research are also important things to consider. If the research has too narrow a focus, this can cause the researcher to miss important tangential discoveries. If the research is too broad in focus, it can lead to distractions and unnecessary diversions.
Even after the information is obtained through the research process, documenting and organizing the content can be time consuming and difficult. It may be that different arrangements or organizations of the same content may bring to light a variety of different information.
Some current systems provide recommendation engines that suggest content based on a user's past habits, searches, declared interests, or ratings. These types of recommendation engines are used on some on-line shopping sites as well as on-line multimedia ordering sites (such as a site where a song or movie or video can be ordered and streamed or downloaded for viewing). In addition, similar recommendation engines are used for recommending books, magazines, or other articles for reading.
Some collaborative environments also exist which provide social book marking sites. That is, a user can invite other people to help them collect content on a specific subject. Further, some services allow a user to outsource research to a third party. However, these services rely on remote human beings to accomplish the task, and they are quite limited in terms of their ability to provide personalized, accurate, thorough and ongoing research.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.